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HarperCollins Children’s Books a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
Text copyright © Michael Morpurgo 1996. Illustrations copyright © Christian Birmingham 1996
Cover photographs © Martin Harvey; Gallo Images/CORBIS (Lion Cub); Royalty-Free/CORBIS (Savanna)
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Source ISBN: 9780007317356
Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780007380626
Version: 2019-01-04
For Virginia McKenna
Contents
Chilblains and Semolina Pudding
And the Lion Shall Lie Down with the Lamb
The Butterfly Lion grew from several magical roots: the memories of a small boy who tried to run away from school a long time ago; a book about a pride of white lions discovered by Chris McBride; a chance meeting in a lift with Virginia McKenna, actress and champion of lions and all creatures born free; a true story of a soldier of the First World War who rescued some circus animals in France from certain death; and the sighting from a train of a white horse carved out on a chalky hillside near Westbury in Wiltshire.
To Chris McBride, to Virginia McKenna and to Gina Pollinger – many, many thanks. And to you the reader – enjoy it!
MICHAEL MORPURGO
February 1996
Chilblains and Semolina Pudding
Butterflies live only short lives. They flower and flutter for just a few glorious weeks, and then they die. To see them, you have to be in the right place at the right time. And that’s how it was when I saw the butterfly lion – I happened to be in just the right place, at just the right time. I didn’t dream him. I didn’t dream any of it. I saw him, blue and shimmering in the sun, one afternoon in June when I was young. A long time ago. But I don’t forget. I mustn’t forget. I promised them I wouldn’t.
I was ten, and away at boarding school in deepest Wiltshire. I was far from home and I didn’t want to be. It was a diet of Latin and stew and rugby and detentions and cross-country runs and chilblains and marks and squeaky beds and semolina pudding. And then there was Basher Beaumont who terrorised and tormented me, so that I lived every waking moment of my life in dread of him. I had often thought of running away, but only once ever plucked up the courage to do it.
I
